What to plant next to roses

It used to be assumed that roses were so self-sufficient that they did not need neighbors.

But today mixed plantings, in which roses perfectly harmonize with other spectacular plants, are becoming more and more popular.

Mixed planting has many advantages: first, there are fewer problems with specific diseases affecting a particular culture, and second, it is a good opportunity to extend the decorativeness of the flower bed.

Before choosing suitable neighbors for roses, decide exactly what you want your flower bed to be. Do you want a beautiful rose garden with inclusions of other plants or a classic mixed garden with more than just roses in the foreground?

Let’s look at some good examples of combining roses with other plants.

Accent plants

Tall plants that immediately catch the eye look great in a rose garden. There should be no more than three of them, otherwise, roses will be lost in their background. As a crop to create an accent, cereals (e.g., Miscanthus chinensis) are excellent. Even a single beautiful bush of this plant will give the flower bed an attractive shape. The grasses also look good spartina, molinia blue, and reedgrass.

Column-shaped conifers are no less effective in a rose garden. Thuja and junipers decorate the flower bed all year round but take into account that such columns should be several, especially if the bed is quite voluminous.

Also the role of accent plants in the rose garden perfectly suited tall beautifully flowering perennials. The most attractive of them are foxglove and mullein. They can be planted in small groups throughout the rose garden. At the same time, it is necessary to competently combine plants according to the color of flowers.

Secondary plants

These crops should look attractive throughout the season. With this role perfectly copes cuff, geraniums, hostas, medium grasses, dwarf conifers, low-growing spireas.

If you are a fan of a bright flower garden, you can add to it decorative-leaved plants with foliage of different colors. For example, with white and pink roses perfectly combined with silver wormwood, woolly celandine, oatmeal. And orange and yellow roses beautifully set off purple geichera, clopogon (cimicifuga) or sedge oblique chocolate-brown color.

Background plants

To give the rose garden a finishing touch, the unfilled areas can be populated with plants with small flowers. Gypsophila, cranes, astrantia, lavender, sage, blooming geichera look good surrounded by roses.

When planting plants, consider their ecological requirements. Light-loving flowers do not plant next to tall roses, which will create shade and prevent the plants from developing. Powerful and fast-growing companions should not be planted near rose bushes. Otherwise, aggressive plants will become oppressive to your garden queens.

The best duets with roses

Among ornamental plants, there are several specimens that create a perfect tandem with roses. Such a harmonious neighborhood leaves no one indifferent.

A successful combination of roses and clematis has already been tested by time. This stellar pair will decorate any garden, but for this, you need to take into account a few rules.

Clematis is most often planted next to climbing roses, which in the middle belt for the winter are removed from the support and covered. Clematis has fragile shoots, so when preparing roses for winter, it is easy to damage the neighboring plant. To prevent this from happening, choose winter-hardy, fast-growing, and flowering current-year shoots for planting next to climbing roses. They belong to the 3rd pruning group, so they are strongly shortened in autumn (up to 3 buds).

It is recommended to grow large-flowered late-flowering Jacquemann hybrids, Viticella clematis in duet with climbing roses, and plants from the integrifolia group with bush roses (in the flower bed or on low support).

Clematis and roses have a similar range of colors, but the former does not have an orange tone, and the latter lacks blue and blue pigments. Plants can be matched in tone, but you can play with the intensity of the shades, or use contrasting combinations. For example, bright orange and yellow roses and deep purple or blue clematis.

Or you can also go with a dark purple clematis such as The President, a bright pink Ville de Lyon and a soft pink Ania in the company of any white bedding rose.

Both roses and clematis have deep root systems, so they are planted quite close (50-60 cm apart). With this planting scheme, they will not oppress each other. When placing plants near constructions, it is also necessary to step back about 50 cm from the wall of the building.

Roses and grapes

Back in medieval Europe, a rose bush was often planted in front of the vine trellis. This was done to prevent horses from trampling the vineyards. The prickly rose thorns stopped the animals.

Roses and grapes have similar agricultural techniques and both plants are covered for the winter with the same materials. Therefore, the neighborhood of roses and grapes is not only beautiful but also convenient for the gardener.

This duo will especially appeal to grape growers, since the rose is susceptible to the same diseases as the grape, but gets sick before the berry bush (we are only talking about old less resistant varieties, not modern hybrids). Thus, the queen of the garden will signal the danger in advance – and the gardener will have time to take action in time.

A successful solution is to plant roses and grapes along the perimeter of the arbor. For this purpose, a distance of 2 m between the grape bushes is maintained, and in these gaps are placed one seedling of a climbing rose. In autumn, grapevine and rose shoots are lowered to the ground and covered with lapnik and spunbond, in April the cover is gradually removed, and in May the plants are lifted and tied up.

Roses and delphiniums

Tall “candles” delphiniums look great in the background of the rose garden. But next to this plant, you need to plant enough tall roses, as dwarf specimens may not be able to withstand the shade created by their neighbors.

An attractive composition can be created by combining roses with panicular phlox. The latter will continue to flower when the roses have already wilted. Another good thing about phlox is that they are unpretentious and that they do not have strong roots. It is therefore easy to transplant them if the roses get too big or the combination of the color palettes of these plants is unsuccessful.

Roses and phlox

Phlox is a good border for tall roses and a background for stunted ones. But it is important to find the right color scheme and not to get too variegated.

Of course, this is not a complete list of good neighbors for roses. You can plant other plants as well. But it is important that they do not interfere with each other to develop properly and match well in terms of color.